Just for the love of hockey (seen in norwegian eyes)

For the spectators there’s bad coffee, low temprature, cold waffels and a piece amazing game of sports to watch. But for the players it is much more. It’s love.Bruses, concussions, sore muscles, fights and losses. Why hockey? Why that sport, where you risk to get beat up everyday just to play something? But for a man that has been playing hockey his whole life knows that it’s not just ”something”. It’s a religion, a passion, a holiday. Away from stress, the city, your girlfriend, kids, parents. A place where boys can be boys, and you can sit in the locker room talking shit after practice for hours. Just to listen to some guy on your team fucked up his relationship, or how someone never gets to ”close the deal”. And no mather what it is you have done, the guys will laugh, not of you but with you. And that is hockey, a teamsport where you have love for your teammate. You will fight for him on the ice if someone tries to pull a dirty move. You will grab there jersey and start bangin’ at him. Just for the love of hockey.

Hockey, a sport where you as a Ola Nordmann will spend thousands of bucks on sticks and skates. Money you really don’t have, but you know you have to use, or your game wouldn’t be right. Maybe you had to skip buying those shoes or that new pair of jeans you really need, just so you can get a new stick to sharpen that slapshot. Just for the love of hockey.

What about going up and down that ice, day after day. Skating your ass off after a shitty day at work, and you are tired as hell. But you never wan’t to go home.. you want to play more, you want to have a onion-penalty-shootout in practice, just so you can laugh at the guy that always looses. You want to bear down to block that shot, make that hit or best of all, score that goal. Everything that can make your team win games. Just for the love of hockey.

So, why do you want your son to be a hockey player, why do you want him to go on the ice as a little kid, and come crying back to you ’cause his scared. Why do you want him to get hurt, why dont just buy him a playstation or a board game? Because it’s hockey, and he will love it, everyone loves hockey they just don’t know it.
dju - 24.12.06